The leader of the New Schiano Order says he’s hands-off on playcalling

It was world famous popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging Peter King, of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame, who outed Greg Schiano as a pasta- and temperature-obsessed control freak on a national stage months ago. Yet yesterday, ironically it was King who set the stage for Schiano to explain that he enjoyed being hands-off head coach on gameday against the Panthers.

The leader of the New Schiano Order checked in on the Peter King Podcast and explained he never delegated all playcalling while leading Rutgers but is now content to be rather hands off with the Bucs.

“This job is really the first one as a head coach that in some way shape or form I’m not calling some part of the game,” Schiano said. “So it was  really different for me in that, you know, I contribute, and I’ll tell our coordinators if I want to do something, ‘Take a shot. Put pressure on them,’ but not having to make specific play calls allows you to really think about the game and the personnel and all those things. And that I really enjoyed. I didn’t think I would. But I did.”

Joe’s glad to hear Schiano is confident enough in his staff to take more of a CEO role and not micromanage the playcalling.

Perhaps King might even dare to publicly renounce the “control freak” label he was so quick to hit Schiano with. Nahh. That’s not going to happen.

The thing that jumped out at Joe in the win over the stinking Panthers was how much impact was made by the Bucs’ top three draft picks from this spring.

Safety Mark Barron put the fear of God in receivers young and old the way he popped people and broke up passes, not to mention the highlight reels he made on national sports shows by nearly beheading Steve Smith.

Muscle Hamster Doug Martin was everything advertised, getting tough yards fighting against the heralded Panthers linebacker unit, then closing the game out with a double-digit run for a first down.

Then there was weakside linebacker Lavonte David, who was playing sideline to sideline and was actually calling the defensive plays. A rookie in his first NFL game no less!

The feats of the three rookies were not lost on veteran sports columnist Gary Shelton, who waxed poetic about the trio in the Tampa Bay Times.

The kids are brand new. That should be pointed out, and re-pointed out. They are one game into their careers, and nothing is promised, and there is a lot of football to be played before any of them have arrived. All of us understand that.

And yet … weren’t all three of them something to see in their debuts?

Furthermore, isn’t it about time the Bucs discovered their next wave of sellable jerseys?

How good were the three Sunday? Martin led both teams in rushing yards, David led the Bucs in tackles and Barron led the Bucs in cracking the other team’s ribs. It was a beautiful thing.

Speaking of which, you just know the headline Joe chose is ample reason to drop a video on Joe’s readers from “The Who” when they were in their prime.

It is not a good thing to get former Bucs great defensive tackle Warren Sapp angry. And apparently, despite current Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy having a fantastic game against the stinking Panthers, Sapp found a way to get irritated with GMC.

GMC hassled, hounded and bruised Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, who is the size of a tight end if not an offensive lineman. Newton, a couple of times, escaped the clutches of GMC which prompted Sapp — always a Bucs player at heart — to call GMC, so writes eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.

McCoy posted one of Tampa Bay’s three sacks against Cam Newton, adding two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. On the morning after, he lamented a snap when he appeared to have Newton wrapped up but couldn’t bring him down – a sequence that prompted a phone call from former Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp.

“Sapp called me last night and said, ‘Look, if you’ve ever got a quarterback in your grasp like that and you let him out, me and you are going to fight,’ ” McCoy said.

Joe understands where Sapp is coming from and also understands Sapp has the same mentality of Al Davis, “The quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard.” But as GMC notes in Kaufman’s article, bringing down Newton is easier said than done. Newton is a different breed of cat than, say, Brett Favre or Rich Gannon or Jeff George, some of Sapp’s contemporaries.

Nevertheless, Joe thinks it is cool that Sapp is still so emotionally involved with the Bucs that it disturbs him when the Bucs don’t reach perfection.

It was one of the more fun moments of Sunday’s Bucs game, 2nd-and-10 on the Panthers 19 yard line with the Bucs leading 10-0 in the second quarter.

Josh Freeman completes a slant pass to Vincent Jackson, and Jackson is held up by Panthers defenders at the 7 yard line as Jackson keeps his legs pumping. Then Doug Martin sticks his head into the barely moving pile and tries to drive it, and then Jeremy Zuttah, Carl Nicks and Ted Larsen come flying in full sprint and collapse the pile to the 4 yard line — 1st-and-goal Bucs.

It was a great play, except for Dallas Clark standing alongside the pile out of danger while Martin and the O-line sacrificed their bodies. During the Raheem Morris era, that would have been classified as a “loaf.” Heck, in any era it was a loaf.

This disappointed Joe, especially after Bill Polian said over and over this offseason on NFL Radio that Clark is a guy who loves everything football and is the ultimate team player. Clark didn’t show it on that play.

Weeks ago Greg Schiano said changes to his depth chart would be worth noting.

Well, today there’s a new one. Brandon McDonald, the surprise nickel cornerback Sunday, has moved ahead of Myron Lewis and is listed as Eric Wright’s backup on the depth chart issued by the Bucs for their upcoming game against the Giants. Joe delivered an interview of McDonald yesterday, in case you missed it.

E.J. Biggers remains behind Aqib Talib, and Lewis, Anthony Gaitor and Leonard Johnson are listed as third string.

In past years, the NFL made it very easy to find and watch blacked out Bucs games on NFL.com. It was simple. All kinds of pop-up ads appeared on NFL.com to guide readers to the NFL Game Rewind broadcast starting at midnight following every blacked out game.

Well, that wasn’t the case yesterday. Those helpful pop-up ads never appeared, and the link wasn’t seen on the NFL Game Rewind page.

But Joe, thanks to a determined reader, is here to save the day. The FOX broadcast can be seen in glorious HD at http://gamerewind.nfl.com/buccaneers. Enjoy.

Bucs fans remember Chucky tapping his deep knowledge of the Raiders playbook and personnel and drilling the Bucs defense before the Bucs’ Super Bowl conquest, even quarterbacking the scout team himself to mimic Rich Gannon and prepare the Bucs for glory.

Can Mike Sullivan do the same this week?

Sullivan spent many years in the Giants organization and was Eli Manning’s prized quarterback coach last season. The Giants haven’t changed much — and why would they — and Sullivan should be a wealth of knowledge.

This is not lost on the leader of the New Schiano Order, who sat down for 10+ minutes today on The Blitz, hosted by Gannon and Adam Schein on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

Adam Schein: Is this a unique spot for you where you talk to your offensive coordinator first and foremost about maybe how to go after Eli Manning because of his intimate knowledge of Eli?

Greg Schiano: Well, I can’t lie. We’ve had several discussions. You know, you’d be a fool to do anything but. There’s nothing but the utmost respect. Mike Sullivan, our offensive coordinator, just thinks the world of Eli and really the entire Giants organization.  We know exactly what we’re up against. And that doesn’t mean we can do anything about it. Right? That’s our job. We gotta go out and play and coach. The flip side of that is they have a knowledge of Mike. And Mike’s calling the plays for us. So it’ll be interesting. There’ll be some subplots going on Sunday that are, you know, not in every game.

Joe hopes Sullivan can deliver that edge to the Bucs’ defense that tips the scales. Regardless, Sullivan’s biggest challenge remains in his playcalling duties. There’s little doubt the Bucs will need more than 16 points to bring home a W this weekend.

“This team is in a lot better shape this year. We’re locking in throughout the week a little bit better. I mean we’re doing a better job of locking in through walk-throughs and meeting rooms, you know, a lot better job getting ready for Sunday. I think last year we kind of tried to come out on Sunday and play the game. But this year we are playing the game Monday through Saturday, you know what I’m sayin?” — Aqib Talib, following Sunday’s Bucs-Panthers game.

Yes, Aqib, Joe knows what you’re sayin’.

It’s quotes like these that give Joe great hope for the 2012 season. Why? Because they lead Joe to believe the Bucs were a talented yet seriously undercoached team last season, one that should have produced more like the 2010 edition, rather than deal fans a historic tank job.

Last week was the first time the New Schiano Order Bucs prepared for a real game. Joe’s pleased that the differences from the old regime are still prominent.

Let Joe go on the record, one day there’s going to be a huge scandal surrounding a NFL player somehow doing something inappropriate to affect a game because he wanted to influence his fantasy football team or league.

Joe’s always thought that, but was reminded last night when the loquacious Carl Nicks spoke on Total Access on WDAE-AM 620. Nicks shared his addiction to fantasy football, how he competes with his dad, and how Doug Martin is on his fantasy team.

It seems Nicks clearly bought in to Greg Schiano’s “run the football” philosophy.

As he did months ago, Nicks compared Martin to a better version of Pierre Thomas, his old teammate in New Orleans.

This is exactly how you need to watch tonight’s Rays games!! The great all-you-can-eat wings offer is available Tuesday nights at Hooters St. Pete locations on 4th Street and in Tyrone Square. Get more info. at OriginalHooters.com.

The best Tampa Bay major sports coach, Rays manager Merlot Joe Maddon, who blends wine, funky glasses, spreadsheet graffiti and baseball wizardry like no other, is a fan of Twitter, just like Gerald McCoy.

On Monday Maddon had but one Twitter message. And it was to laud Bucs coach Greg Schiano for a job well done as the Bucs smothered the stinking Panthers.

@RaysJoeMaddon: Congrats to Coach Schiano on a great debut. Let’s both celebrate one over New York next Sunday.

For those who are not baseball fans or followers of the Rays, both the Bucs and the Rays will take to Gotham this weekend. The Rays have a crucial series in The Bronx against the Yankees that could well determine if the Rays are playoff-bound or not.

At the same time, Schiano will be leading the Bucs in the New Jersey Swamplands to face the defending Super Bowl champion Giants.

And Joe will be there.

The leader of the New Schiano Order, Bucs coach Greg Schiano, talked with Eric Kuselias about the win over the Panthers, LeGarrette Blount, and how the NFL has evolved when he was an assistant with the Bears in this NBC Sports Network video.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

The Anti-Raheem also offered the highest praise for Lavonte David

Wait a minute. Bucs fans and media were drilled by Raheem Morris to believe that “stats are for losers.” Raheem told everyone that.

Raheem wanted us to ignore stats, focus on the scoreboard and stop referencing cold hard data to evaluate the product on the field.

So it’s rather comical to Joe, and not unexpected, that the leader of the New Schiano Order is a stats guy.

We learned yesterday Greg Schiano was dialed in on the time-of-possession stat against the Panthers, and speaking on The Greg Schiano Show on WDAE-AM 620, the Bucs head man dared to offer an evaluation of Doug Martin based on statistics.

“I was really, really pleased to see our young guys, like you said our first three picks, they all had a big impact in the football game,” Schiano said. “Mark Barron was really good, obviously. And Doug Martin, stats speak for themselves. And a guy that hasn’t been talked about a lot, but Lavonte David I thought played a whale of a game. I mean really good, from communicating, to linin’ it up, to the way he played. You know, he did not play like a rookie, and that’s good because we need him. He’s a starting linebacker and he needs to play like it.”

When it comes to stats, Joe suspects Schiano would even dare to extend his focus to things like missed tackles. No, stats are not for losers under the New Schiano Order.

At times Sunday, Joe wondered whether he was hallucinating. Was the Bucs team on the field really the same lot that ended the 2011 season with a grotesque 10-game losing streak?

No, it was not. The addition of key players, both veterans and rookies, along with a new mindset has the Bucs “tougher,” so writes Joe’s good friend Jason McIntyre of TheBigLead.com, one of Joe’s many proud media partners.

The Bucs are Tougher: Ten rushing yards allowed, and much stronger defense. Mark Barron made a huge impact, getting big hits, and also defending a key third down pass as Carolina was trying to rally. Carolina’s defense played better after a rough start, and Tampa still needs to get better offensively. Will we see a turnaround like the 49ers? I think that is optimistic, but they are clearly a better team than the train wreck that developed under Raheem Morris.

Train wreck? No, that wasn’t a trainwreck. That was a train flying off a cliff last year.

This team is a team. It’s eats, sleeps, breathes as a team (thank you George C. Scott). Which is why Joe found an element of Schiano’s call-in radio show heard on the Buccaneer Radio Network, locally heard yesterday on WDAE-AM 620, so interesting.

Schiano is uncomfortable with the football term “go make a play.” He believes such a mindset is prompting a player to try to do too much, which thus results in freelancing.

Schiano reinforced his mantra that if every player just does his job the way he is coached, more often than not, the result will be beneficial. When players stray with the mindset of “go make a play,” is when things break down.

Greg Schiano shed no light on the mystery surrounding LeGarrette Blount. In fact, the leader of the New Schiano Order added to the intrigue at his afternoon news conference today.

Blount was hurt on a play yesterday but walked off the field, and Schiano also was seen barking at Blount what appeared to be coaching, based on hand gestures, during the game. Blount never returned after being shaken up and jogged briskly out the Bucs locker room toward the parking lot before reporters had a chance to talk to him after the game.

Schiano was asked today about Blount’s condition.

“LeGarrette could have gone back in the game,” Schiano said. “I don’t know if we’re all certain on what’s ailing LeGarrette.”

Schiano went on to say he’d know more Wednesday and implied that Blount has a physical condition rather than mental. This reminds Joe a lot of Luke Stocker’s mystery ailment in training camp.

Jim Basquil and Eric Allen break down the Bucs win over the stinking Panthers in this BSPN video.

The Bucs threw the ball 10 times to Vincent Jackson yesterday, mostly underneath and over the middle. He finished with four catches. But the other  arial weapon acquired for Josh Freeman this offseason, Dallas Clark, didn’t get that kind of action.

Clark caught one beautiful touch throw from Freeman and tacked on about 10 yards after the catch for a 33 yard gain. It was the Bucs’ biggest play of the day, and one that left Clark yearning for more. Clark surely spent more time on the sidelines than he’s used to, watching Luke Stocker block.

“It was fun. It was good to get out there and get a first down. Obviously, I’d like to play more and do all that, but it’s early,” Clark said. “Each game is going to have its own personality. And we kind of knew what we had to do, which was establish the run, and I think we did a good job of committing to that.”

It’s going to be awfully interesting to see how Mike Sullivan evolves the tight end position in his offense. When was the last time the Bucs only threw once to a tight end? This is new territory for Freeman, who was used to looking for — and listening to — No. 82.

Clark is a definite weapon, much like LeGarrette Blount. Sullivan maximizing their talents is going to be key moving forward.

The newest Bucs CB could cut short the tenure of Myron Lewis, Anthony Gaitor or Leonard Johnson.

It’s a crazy life in the NFL. Guys are cut one day and then make big plays in games the next. Bucs cornerback Brandon McDonald is a perfect example. The veteran was signed in late August, cut in September, re-signed Wednesday, and he was the Bucs’ nickel cornerback in Sunday’s beat-down of the Panthers. Wearing No. 33, McDonald was swarming around the ball. The journeyman was a fifth-round pick of the Browns in 2007, and the Bucs are his fourth team. Joe caught up to McDonald in the locker room.

JoeBucsFan.com: You were fired up after you made a couple of tackles [Sunday]? Do you like to bring that kind of emotion?

Brandon McDonald: You know, I’m an emotional guy. Anytime I can help my football team. They put me into that position to make those plays, so you know everybody’s got a key role in this defense and I’m just trying to do my best and hold up my end.

Joe: You were released with the Bucs’ final cuts and then you were re-signed. Can you talk about your feelings with all that and then you played a lot today.

McDonald:  I’ve been released before, released from the Browns, released from Detroit. And then I ended up finishing that year [with Detriot]. So it’s not a process I’m new to. It was a business decision the Bucs had to make. Thank God that they brought me back so I could show them that I could help this team win some football games.

Joe: You seemed all over the place today. Did you feel like you played well?

McDonald: I’m just trying to go out there and do my job the best I can. I had a few tackles. There were some things I did well. There are things I need to fix and things to do better. I’ll make those corrections, and we’ll make those corrections as a team and come out and try and get a win in New York.

Joe: Does this defense remind you of any others you’ve played on? How would you describe this Bucs defense?

McDonald: Nickel, the scheme of things and cover 2 is pretty much the same. I just gotta get the terminology down, which is different from team to team, and I should be good. There wasn’t a real big transition for me here.

As Aqib Talib said after yesterday’s game, “This ain’t last year.” No, it’s a New Schiano Order. Punishing running game and swarming defense.

This was on display yesterday in Schiano’s debut as an NFL head coach when the Bucs held the Panthers to a mere 10 yards rushing and Muscle Hamster ran for 95 bruising yards.

For this, Delta-scolding, Marriott-sleeping, scone-loathing Peter King of Sports Illustrated annointed Schiano as “Coach of the Week.”

Coach of the Week

Greg Schiano, head coach, Tampa Bay.The Bucs were last in the NFL in points allowed last year, and last against the run. In two games against the Panthers last year, they gave up 86 points. But they’ve bought into Schiano early, and held Carolina to 10 yards rushing and 10 points at the Pirate Ship. One game’s too early to say the rah-rah stuff is going to work in the NFL, but discipline is discipline, and organization is organization. And Kellen Winslow and Brian Price, casualties under Schiano, haven’t landed anywhere, have they?

No, Winslow was more interested in spinning discs poolside in Las Vegas than he was in working to become a winner. And let’s not forget about Bongs Jackson who was/is more interested in the hippie lettuce (allegedly) than becoming a winner.

The Bucs may not make the playoffs this year. Yes, that’s a stretch. But Schiano has certainly shaken this franchise from a lazy slumber.

Joe had a chance to talk with middle linebacker Mason Foster after yesterday’s win over the stinking Panthers. Foster explained how it was that the Bucs held the stinking Panthers to a mere 10 yards rushing.

JoeBucsFan: Mason, talk about how strong your defense was today. You held the Panthers to 10 yards rushing. That’s incredible to do that to any team, but to do that against the Panthers and Cam Newton and DeAngelo Williams, that’s an incredible job.

Mason Foster: One of the main goals was to stop the run. So I felt we did a great job. The defensive line played well, we were making gang plays, making plays on the back end so we were just playing. Yeah, we made a few mistakes, but we were playing balls out, making plays, playing off each other.

Joe: Not sure Newton has had a rougher day than he did against your defense. He had just four yards rushing. You were a big part of that. You made an open field tackle on him when they were deep in Bucs territory.

Foster: That’s stuff we practice every day. We practice tackling. We knew we had to come up and make tackles in the open field. [Newton] is going to make his plays but we have to make more plays than him. Guys came out and made plays. We have to continue that and keep working.

Joe: This was like the old days of the Bucs, meaning the offense was struggling in the second half and the team had to rely on the defense to not let Carolina take over, to be the rock of the team. And you guys answered the bell.

Foster: We have a great group from the ones [first team] to the twos [second team], to everybody. Anyone that hopped in the game was making plays and rushing hard, covering good. All kinds of guys, that’s what you love to see. We were well-coached. We can get better. But it is encouraging to see people hopping in there and making plays.